Victoria Stanway
I became a professional artist in 2008 to meet demand for my work. Working from my studio in Oxfordshire, I paint landscapes and portraits, but have recently focused on a series of work entitled ' Landscapes of the Mind'. This collection of paintings are inspired by a combination of fading memories, and dreams, so they are full of references from my past and deal with themes to help me understand it.
I grew up in a dying milltown in east Lancashire, which consisted of rows and rows of back to back terraces, redundant textile mills, and factories all crammed chaotically together, surrounded by luminous countryside, which I would escape to. My paintings tend to be fragmented, contrasting and blurring the references to reflect my feelings about them.
The reoccurring symbols in the paintings are houses and windows, windows signifying an introspection, looking within myself. I paint the terraced houses a lot, they represent oppressive, claustrophobic restricting memories, of feeling stifled and hemmed in as a child. I take these ideas further in some paintings and use them cathartically, as for example ' Projections' whereby I'm dealing with the psychological term projection in relation to my past. With 'Distractions' these references are used to create a landscape in which brutal truths of reality are ignored by focusing on ephemeral things.
I have exhibited all over the UK, and most of my work has been acquired by private collectors from around the globe.
